The North Carolina Arboretum is a 434-acre botanical garden and arboretum southwest of Asheville in the Bent Creek Experimental Forest of Pisgah National Forest. Its roots go back to Frederick Law Olmsted’s 1898 vision, but the modern institution was created by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1986 and officially designated in 1989. Still developing as a working landscape, it combines cultivated plant collections with hiking and bicycling trails. Notable features include towering Metasequoias planted in 1950, specialized gardens highlighting native azaleas, hollies, regional craft plants, and Southern Appalachian landscape testing, as well as a prominent bonsai collection established in 1992 and recognition for pollinator education in 2016.